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Saxon – Battering Ram
I was thirteen years old, staying up late and listening to The Friday Rock Show on an old transistor radio the first time I heard Saxon. My parents were sleeping in the next room, so clearly not wanting to be disturbed by my latest, and somewhat “interesting” choice in music (a school friend had only introduced me to Metal a few weeks before) had told me to “keep it down”. A lot. So, with the volume knob set infuriatingly low, I did my best to listen to Tommy Vance (RIP) introducing the band’s latest single, ‘Do It All For You’, and was completely blown away by their singer. By god, she sounded fantastic!
Wait, what?
Yes, thanks to the combination of a lack of volume and a tinny 3” mono speaker, I was convinced Saxon were fronted by a girl. It came as quite a shock a few weeks later, while flicking through the pages of a popular, then bi-weekly music magazine, to discover their singer was actually a big northern bloke called Biff Byford. Okay, his hair was ridiculously bouncy and he wore skintight spandex leggings, but he was most definitely NOT a lady.
In more recent years, the hair may have become a little less fluffy and the waistlines might be a little larger, but the band have never strayed (too) far from their original path. After the rather lightweight Destiny (EMI) in 1988, the band released a sequence of enjoyable, if somewhat unspectacular albums, but 2004’s Lionheart (SPV) appeared to give them a new lease of life. Every release since then has maintained the same high standard and that trend continues with latest offering, Battering Ram (UDR).
Kicking things off in emphatic style, the bruising title track is quickly followed by ‘The Devil’s Footprint’, a song based on a story from 1855 where a number of townships believed cloven hoof prints found in the snow one morning belonged to the devil. After briefly tricking me into thinking my computer had developed a stutter, the stop-start riff of ‘Queen of Hearts’ quickly transforms into one of the album’s finest moments, and while ‘Destroyer’ may not be the most original of titles, it’s certainly appropriate as Biff attempts to demolish his vocal cords at the song’s climax.
By this point, I’m starting to wonder if Battering Ram contains any bad tracks at all. ‘Hard and Fast’ and ‘Eye of the Storm’ answer my question with a resounding no, but things do drop off a little with ‘Stand Your Ground’, which for all its speed and neat little middle section, doesn’t really go anywhere. ‘Top Of the World’ immediately steadies the (barely) wobbling ship anyway, and is followed by the almost Sabbath-esque crawl of ‘To The End’. David Bower of Derbyshire NWOBHMers Hell lends his considerable voice talents to six minute ‘The Kingdom of the Cross’, a darkly atmospheric song about the First World War, while “bonus track” ‘Three Sheets to the Wind’ rounds things off a little strangely. A throwaway drinking song which sounds a little out of place coming after such a brooding, melancholic masterpiece.
With producer Andy Sneap at the helm, the album sounds fantastic. The guitars are razor sharp, the drums are big, the bass is clear, and Biff’s vocals ring out as powerfully as they have ever done.
Now, if only they’d go back to doing videos featuring desert roads and big American trucks…
8.0/10
GARY ALCOCK
Satan – Atom By Atom
I’m still undecided as to whether Brian Ross‘s piercing scream which opens Atom By Atom (Listenable) is a surprising thing or not. On one hand, Satan were part of the now legendary NWOBHM scene and screaming vocals were sort of their thing. On the other hand, you have to remember this is a band who started life way back in 1979, so including lengthy hiatuses for transformations into other bands (Pariah, Blind Fury), and key members departing to form entirely new acts (Skyclad), they’ve been doing this for well over 35 years. They’re clearly no spring chickens any more (sorry, chaps), so the fact that this, their fourth full length release, begins with such a pointed statement of intent is not only refreshing but also, happily just a sign of things to come.
The speedy, yet surgically precise riffs come thick and fast as the album gallops along like a thoroughbred racehorse, the twin guitars of Russ Tippins and Steve Ramsey locked in an endless, but perfectly timed, competition to get across the finishing line first. Even mid-paced songs like ‘Bound in Enmity’, ‘Ahriman’ and ‘Fallen Saviour’ appear to get frustrated by their own lack of athleticism and have to kick themselves into shape just to keep up.
It’s not all about lightning fast speed though. There are slow-burning riffs, riffs which twist and creep out of your speakers like long legged spiders, and riffs which sound like a knife-wielding maniac gave Ozzy Osbourne‘s ‘I Don’t Know’ an adrenaline shot and chased it down an alleyway. Yeah, okay. Speed is definitely a key element here. However, for all of its near relentlessness, the album never once feels cluttered or rushed. There’s always room to breathe, and even enough time for a choral section and brief spoken word passage.
When some previously defunct bands decide it’s time to try and grab a second bite of the cherry, there’s a tendency to come back with just a name and, if we’re lucky, two or three original members. A year or two down the line and the old problems which caused the band to split in the first place rear their ugly heads and everything begins to fall apart again. Thankfully, however, and much like fellow NWOBHMers Hell, Satan are not only more confident than ever but also still pushing themselves in what really should be their comfortable slippers and gardening years.
When Ross shouts “Ten Thousand Hiroshimas, it’s the end for you and me!” on album closer and mini-epic ‘The Fall of Persephone’ you can picture the scene with crystal clarity.
And it’s a scene set perfectly for Satan.
8.5/10
GARY ALCOCK